Board games and video games have a long history of providing entertainment to players by presenting a platform through which players attempt to conquer territory. Even in the real-world, gaming enthusiasts play games to conquer territory, not the least of which are Football or paintball. The thirst for new battle grounds seems to be insatiable.
What has yet to be appreciated is there is an inexhaustible supply of potential new battle grounds to be explored or conquered based on on-line or virtual domains. For example, each web site or page can represent a territory to be conquered or acquired. One can construct a gaming system where players cooperate or compete to conquer a web site or gain resources made available via the web site. Furthermore, one can provide a game agent that allows individuals to interact with the game system while also browsing or viewing the target website.
Interestingly, not much effort has been directed to providing infrastructure for allowing users to interact with a game while also browsing domains. For example, U.S. pat. publ. no. 2010/0041457 to Cook et al. (publ. February 2010) describes an interface through which players can communicate with other players. The interface can include a game overlay presenting a chat window while also presenting full screen game play. Although useful to present multiple layers of information, Cook fails to appreciate that non-game domains could be a component of a game.
In a similar vein, U.S. pat. publ. no. 2010/00210357 to Slough et al. (publ. August 2010) also describes providing overlays in a gaming environment, which can include a web browser. Even Slough fails to appreciate that domain content or other viewed domain can become an integral part of a game.
U.S. pat. publ. no. 2009/0036216 to Ratcliff (publ. February 2009) and U.S. pat. publ. no. 2009/0181774 to Ratcliff (publ. July 2009) discuss a gaming environment where players can compete over internet websites. However, Ratcliff fails to appreciate that various websites can be linked together to create a game map topology, and further fails to contemplate the interposing of non-internet domains into game play.
Unless the context dictates the contrary, all ranges set forth herein should be interpreted as being inclusive of their endpoints, and open-ended ranges should be interpreted to include commercially practical values. Similarly, all lists of values should be considered as inclusive of intermediate values unless the context indicates the contrary.
Thus, there is still a need for providing gaming system infrastructure to allow bridged domains to become part of the game.